Top 100 Graduate Employer Rankings reveals where university students want to work

FORGET big salaries and flashy titles. According to these rankings, that isn’t necessarily what Australians are looking for in their dream careers.

A HIGH salary and prestigious position are not as important to university students as finding a job that offers good training and personal development, according to a new survey.

The Top 100 Graduate Employer Rankings list the companies that graduates most want to work for, according to a survey of 6000 university students.

Unsurprisingly, Google topped the list for the second year in a row and was presented with the top honour on Thursday night by Industry Minister Christopher Pyne.

It is only the second time the list has been compiled by GradAustralia, but director Jeffery Duncan said the rankings seemed to follow industry trends.

“This year mining, oil and gas employers tended to slide down in the rankings, which is perhaps a reflection of economic times,” Mr Duncan told news.com.au.

“Students are probably aware they are not hiring as many people, and factors such as job security aren’t as obvious in that sector.”

As part of the survey, GradAustralia asked students what factors were important to them when choosing an employer.

The top responses were good career prospects, good employer leadership style, training and development, as well as personal development, with 95 per cent of respondents saying they were either important or very important.

The least important factor was status and prestige, with only 63 per cent nominating it as important, followed by high starting salary (66 per cent).

Mr Duncan said this indicated that students were looking for employers who would nurture and train them.

Statistics from The Top 100 Graduate Employer Rankings by GradAustralia.

It was also in line with a separate GradAustralia survey that found only 53 per cent of respondents felt their university degrees provided them with necessary work skills.

“Students are looking for employers train them, develop and plug what they see as a skill gap,” Mr Duncan said.

The importance of “personal development” also indicated they were also looking for workplaces to help them develop them as a person.

Interestingly, when students were asked to give a reason for why they chose their preferred employers, the results seemed to conflict with their other answers.

“It’s funny because students say that experience and development is more important than money but when picking their No.1 employer it does seem to creep back into the equation,” Mr Duncan said.

He said their answers indicated status was a factor, particularly for companies such as Google — which topped the rankings — and is a massive global brand and quite prestigious.

But technology-related workplaces in general seemed to be attracting more attention.

“Eighty-three per cent of students agreed that innovation was an important factor when choosing an employer, so it’s not surprising to see students seeking out employers like Google,” Mr Duncan said.

One of the biggest jumps on the list was for Samsung, which rose from 78th position to 19th. Microsoft also entered the top 10, settling in at seventh place from 19th last year. Accenture rose from 37th place to 10th place this year and Cochlear jumped from 88 to 21.

In contrast, many resource companies declined. Rio Tinto dropped from eighth place to 45th, Woodside from 13th to 53rd, Chevron Australia from 10th to 46th and BHP Billiton from fourth to ninth.

Statistics from the Top 100 Graduate Employer Rankings by GradAustralia.

When it came to Google’s success, Mr Duncan said he thought there were a number of factors at play.

“In terms of brand awareness, Google is right at the top, that’s part of it. Then you have to convert this into attractiveness, to make people want to work with you,” he said.

“Google had a movie made about its internship program, for any other Australian company, it’s hard to compete with that.”

C’mon guys, you can’t beat Google. Source: Scene from the film The Internship.

TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS:

1. Google

2. Deloitte Australia

3. Commonwealth Bank

4. EY

5. PwC Australia

6. KPMG

7. Microsoft

8. Dept. of Foreign Affairs and Trade

9. BHP Billiton

10. Accenture

11. IBM

12. Goldman Sachs

13. ANZ

14. Department of Education and Training

15. Department of Social Services

16. The Australian Defence Force

17. Herbert Smith Freehills

18. Boston Consulting Group

19. Samsung

20. Australian Secret Intelligence Service

21. Cochlear Limited

22. McKinsey & Company

23. Telstra

24. Shell

25. King & Wood Mallesons

26. Arup

27. Macquarie Group

28. Aurecon

29. ASIO

30. AECOM

31. Qantas

32. Boeing Defence Australia

33. Department of Defence

34. Bain & Company

35. Allens

36. Teach For Australia

37. Unilever

38. J.P. Morgan

39. Dept. of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

40. Reserve Bank of Australia

41. Australian Taxation Office

42. L’Oréal

43. Department of Agriculture

44. Cisco

45. Rio Tinto

46. Chevron Australia

47. MinterEllison

48. Lendlease

49. Westpac Group

50. Australian Federal Police

51. Atlassian

52. Clayton Utz

53. Woodside

54. GSK

55. Coca-Cola Amatil

56. BP

57. Woolworths

58. Lockheed Martin

59. ANSTO

60. Procter & Gamble

61. BAE Systems

62. ALDI

63. ResMed

64. GHD

65. General Electric

66. Ashurst

67. Deutsche Bank

68. UBS

69. Coles

70. Apple

71. Corrs Chambers Westgarth

72. Pitcher Partners

73. AMP

74. Clemenger Group

75. Citigroup

76. Australian Bureau of Statistics

77. Mars Australia

78. Morgan Stanley

79. Saatchi & Saatchi

80. Brookfield Multiplex

81. BDO

82. National Australia Bank

83. Orica

84. Bloomberg

85. Optus

86. Grant Thornton Australia

87. Australia Post

88. ExxonMobil

89. Hassell

90. Bureau of Meteorology

91. Hewlett Packard Enterprise

92. DLA Piper

93. Suncorp Group

94. Credit Suisse

95. KordaMentha

96. Nestlé

97. DHL

98. Santos

99. Jacobs

100. WorleyParsons

Originally published as Top 100 Graduate Employer Rankings reveals where university students want to work